When a chilling discovery is made in one of the manor's greenhouses, the Frog End villagers rely on the Colonel to reluctantly solve another baffling mystery. Following the untimely death of her mother, Ursula Swynford, Ruth Harvey has taken over the manor in Frog End, where she runs a successful plant-selling business and provides gardening therapy for an increasing number of her husband Dr Tom Harvey's troubled patients: embittered Lawrence Deacon, lonely Joyce Reed, widowed Tanya Carberry and wheelchair-bound Johnny Turner, the young victim of a horrific motorbike crash. Gardening at the manor quickly becomes a much-needed lifeline for the group, and all seems to be going well – until the major stumbles across a body among the tomato plants in one of the greenhouses. Once again, the manor is the scene of a brutal murder – and, once again, the Colonel reluctantly finds himself drawn into solving the mystery.

BERLIN 1948: - A vanquished city of rubble - sliced into sections by the Allies, and set well back behind the Russian lines. A city of old women, black marketeers and sleazy cabarets in ruined cellars.In the British sector was Squadron Leader Michael Harrison, a war hero who had helped to bomb Berlin into fragments. He hated the Nazis who had killed his sister and her children. But here he was, doing his best to ensure that food and fuel was somehow brought in to save the surviving Berliners.In the Russian sector was young Lili Leicht, German, middle-class daughter of a university professor and now living in the ruins of her former home, trying to prevent her grandfather and two younger brothers from dying of malnutrition. Her mother had been killed by British bombers.As the tensions in the smouldering city grew worse, so Michael and Lili slowly fell in love. It was a love that surmounted all the prejudices and hatreds of war and offered a hope of understanding for the future.

She lived only for pleasure...until war forced her to find courage she did not know she had, and love where she least expected it.It is 1941, and while Britain is in the grip of war, life in the Far East is one of wealth and privilege. In Singapore Susan Roper, secure in the supremacy of the British Empire, enjoys dancing,clothes and fast cars, tennis and light flirtations with visiting naval officers- her life is devoted solely to pleasure. When she meets an Australian doctor who warns her of the danger that they all face she dismisses him as an ignorant colonial. Singapore goes on partying, oblivious to the threat of invasion. The British flag will, they believe, protect them from all enemies. But when Japan invades, Susan finds herself in grave danger. She become an ambulance driver and is taken prisoner by the Japanese. Gradually and reluctantly she realises that she has fallen in love with the tough, arrogant and totally unsuitable doctor, but she has to face many...

The Colonel returns, in an atmospheric village mystery from best-selling author Margaret Mayhew. In his time living in the peaceful village of Frog's End, the Colonel has learned that although the place looks as lively as a stagnant pond, there is plenty going on. When he receives a letter from an old friend of his late wife, telling him that 'something horrible has happened' and asking for his help, he is intrigued and happy to assist her. But when he travels up to see Cornelia, he is shocked by what he uncovers, and soon realizes that he must take the investigation into his own hands...

It is 1943, and three very different girls are longing to do their bit for the war effort.Frances - her life of seeming privilege has been a lonely one. Brave and strong, stifled by her traditional upbringing, she falls for a most unsuitable manPrudence - timid and conventional, her horizons have never strayed beyond her job as a bank clerk in Croydon until the war brings her new experiencesRosalind - a beautiful, flame-haired actress who catches the eye of Frances's stuffy elder brother, the heir to an ancestral mansion.The three become friends when they join the band of women working the canal boats, delivering goods and doing a man's job while the men are away fighting. A tough, unglamorous task - but one which brings them all unexpected rewards.

The village of Frog End may be peaceful, but that doesn't mean that the Colonel's life there is quiet – not with his friendly but nosy neighbour Naomi, desperate to know what he's keeping in his new shed; the curious Miss Butler, who tracks his every move with her German U-boat captain's binoculars; and the attentions of the local vicar, who's keen to involve him in church affairs. That's not forgetting the demands of the aloof, imperious cat Thursday, who seems to have adopted the Colonel.So the Colonel is pleased when his old friend Geoffrey Cheetham invites him up to the village of Buckby for the weekend, to coincide with a RAF reunion event. After depositing an outraged Thursday at the Cat Heaven cattery, he drives up, and meets his fellow guests at the Cheethams' B&B: including a Lancaster bomber crew, reunited for the first time. But everything is not as it seems, and the Colonel finds himself taking on the reluctant role of sleuth once more when tragedy strikes . . .

A Lancaster bomber required a crew of seven men. Van, the pilot is American, Jock, Flight Engineer a Scot. Piers, the hopeless navigator is a foppish aristocrat - 'Frightfully sorry, Skipper, not absolutely sure where we are'. The bomb aimer is an Aussie. Wireless operator a London cockney who was 'older than God', a mid-upper gunner with terrible eyesight, and the most heartrending of all, the rear gunner, dragged backwards in a fishbowl through the sky, a seventeen-year-old who had lied about his age to get into the air force. They are all appalling at the beginning of the book. The pilot nearly crashes them on the first landing, they don't get on all that well with each other. They all loathe Piers, the toff, and they don't cohere as a team at all. Then, slowly, as they begin their first real gut-dropping bombing raids over Germany they begin to develop as a real crew, depending on each other, becoming more proficient. Charlie's young widowed mum comes to live in a...

In 1940, as the shadows are lengthening over Europe, painter Louis Duval decides to leave his studio in Brittany and, in his small motor boat, make the short but perilous journey to England. His aim is not to flee from the enemy, but to join the Resistance to fight for his beloved France. He arrives in Dartmouth and finds his way to the boarding house run by the delightful young widow Barbara Hillyard, who is trying to make a living for herself and her young evacuee Esme.Lieutenant-Commander Alan Powell, unfit for active service after being wounded in action, is overseeing undercover operations in that part of the West Country, and he and Duval find themselves in dangerous circumstances. Alan, lonely and frustrated in his work, is drawn towards the lovely Mrs Hillyard, but she seems to have eyes only for the attractive Frenchman...

Set largely on the Essex coast before the war, Matt, Guy, and their young cousin Lizzie meet up for holidays and bum around in an old boat. Guy is the eldest, handsome, skilled at everything, a tad selfish. Matt is quieter and has a crippled right arm. Lizzie adores them both, to the extent of putting up with being sea-sick everytime they go out in the old boat and continually getting bashed on the head by the sail. These are idyllic days of sun, and sea, the golden era of the thirties. Lizzie's father is a doctor and, as the thirties progress, they take the daughter of a Viennese colleague into their home, a Jewish girl called Anna, who is miserable and hates England, and misses her Jewish family and friends. The fifth child to join them is Otto, son of a German diplomat, reared in the best traditions of the Hitler doctrine and destined for the army. These five have a tense and highly involved relationship as they grow up. Anna is resented by the English boys but one...

The Colonel turns reluctant sleuth once more when tragedy strikes at a Christmas party, in Margaret Mayhew's latest atmospheric village mysteryFrog End, that most quintessential of English villages, is preparing for its annual Christmas pantomime. This year, it's Hans Christian Andersen's dark fairytale The Snow Queen. Local busybody Marjorie Cuthbertson is on the hunt for her leading lady – and who better to play the icy queen than beautiful new resident, ex-model Joan Dryden. But as interested as they are in their new neighbours, the residents of Frog End remain wary of the Dryden family, considering them aloof Londoners.Mystery is about to engulf the village however when a cast member collapses and dies at a Christmas party, having consumed a rogue mince pie. Was the death an accident – or was it a malicious revenge strategy masked as an allergic reaction? The Colonel makes it his business to find out.

I STILL REMEMBER THE YANKS, ALMOST MORE THAN I DO THE WAR' A Suffolk woman.It was August 1943 -- and the inhabitants of King's Thorpe had lived with the idea of invasion for some time -- but by the Germans, not the Americans. The village had never seen anything like them before -- certainly they were different with their wealth, their glamour, and their louche but romantic uniforms. Some of the older villagers, like the Brigadier, resented them on sight, others welcomed them with weak tea and fish paste sandwiches. But in some lives they were to make a long-lasting and emotional impact -- most especially young Sally Barnet from the bakery, Agnes Dawe, the Rector's daughter, and newly-widowed Lady Beauchamp from the Manor.

1939 - Officer Felicity Newman and a ragtag group of young women arrive at RAF Colston. They are the first of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force: brave female pilots ready to do their bit.But Station Commander, David Palmer, doesn't want them. They're a nuisance, unable to do the work of men, and they would undoubtedly fall apart if the station was bombed.Felicity is determined to prove the worth of her 'Bluebirds'. There's Anne, who loves to dance but finds herself peeling vegetables in the station kitchens. Winnie, longs to work on the aeroplanes themselves but meets rejection at every turn. And Virginia, who is desperate to build a new life for herself.As the war goes on, so the girls make their mark - behaving heroically under fire, supporting the pilots with their strength, loyalty, and often their love - a love sometimes tragic, sometimes passionate, but always courageous.